Building a Gaming Empire From Scratch

Chapter 878: Chapter 834: The Rules Didn’t Say Stimulants Couldn’t Be Used_1 Chapter 878: Chapter 834: The Rules Didn’t Say Stimulants Couldn’t Be Used_1 Lincoln looked as Mavis arranged a long list of players according to their popularity, from the top to the bottom:

Fighting bandits, listening to music, making wine, murdering treacherous court officials, eavesdropping, taking a group photo with a literati, forcibly adopting stray cats and dogs, compiling martial arts secrets in a scripture library, learning light-body techniques and breaking into various wealthy families to play “Kick the Can”, escorting missions and fighting for the favor, playing parkour on the roofs of Chang’an city, fishing beside Qujiang pool, exploring secret paths in the sewer, accepting bounties for assassinations, etc…

These scattered activities are located in every corner of Chang’an city.

Many players didn’t even join the online discussion and just were absorbed in playing their own games.

By comparing the popularity of online discussions with the actual number of players online, it’s quite easy to come to this conclusion.

Lincoln got a little bit of a headache, “So, what’s the completion rate of each node on the main missions?”

“Let me check!” Mavis calculated briefly, providing Lincoln another simpler list:

[Tutorial level]98%

[Chen Mansion Storyteller]82%

[Teaching Workshop Case]92%

[Huji Wine Shop]76%

[Seek the Way at Dongming Temple]65%

[Wooden Puppet Crisis]43%

[Heavenly Divine Stone]29%

[Chasing Wind]17%

[First Sword Experience in the Year of the Hairpin]9%

Source: AllNovelFull.com, updated on οѵǤᴑ.сο

[Encounter]0%

The majority of these segments are all related to the sister’s journey of mastery: Learning to brew wine at 10, learning to refine Dan at 11, woodworking at 12, forging at 13, horse racing at 14, learning martial arts at 15, and mechanic arts at 16.

Only the last segment relates closely to the starting cutscene, where you meet the sister.

But the number of encounters, is surprisingly…

0%…

“Has no one completed the game?” Lincoln was somewhat surprised, “Wasn’t there a player who made it to the [Chasing Wind] horse racing part on the first day?”

“No.” Mavis showed Lincoln a clip from Roger’s live stream –

He barely made it into the top 50% after three horse races, although he got a [Horse Whistle] that allows him to summon horses anywhere he wants, a good horse was still just a wishful thinking.

Roger didn’t care, he rode on a lousy horse towards the next task: [First Sword Experience in the Year of the Hairpin].

As the name suggests, this is the story of the sister learning martial arts and testing her sword skills at the age of 15.

From this point, the content was no longer winding, but became straightforward –

Challenge the martial arts schools!

Take on each and every martial arts school and style in Chang’an in succession, after challenging 18 schools you would receive the sister’s subsequent clues.

Roger was slightly puzzled but he still took on the challenge.

First – [Spring Night Knife].

As soon as he entered the martial arts school and saw his opponent, Roger was taken aback –

“Coach Xu?”

He had also learned when the club invited Xu Chun to teach.

“Xu Chun” did not respond to his greeting, but simply drew his knife and pointed it at Roger: “So you’re here to challenge?”

“Huh?” Roger froze for a moment before he reacted, “You are an NPC?”

——For this set of tasks, 10 of the 18 NPC opponents were recreated from the experts of Cloud Dream’s [Cold Weapons Research and Development Team].

The remaining eight were development team members who voluntarily signed up and were randomly drawn.

Lincoln originally planned to get one for himself too, but considering his own tendency to draw hatred, he wisely gave up.

While Roger was in a momentary daze, NPC Xu Chun had already charged forward with his blade!

With memories of being mercilessly beaten by Xu Chun flooding his mind, Roger was already timid before the battle even started.

Once the fight actually began, Roger, who still had nearly starting attributes, was indeed beaten to a pulp.

He couldn’t even see NPC Xu Chun’s movements.

Within 5 seconds he was slashed 8 times and tragically fell on the green brick floor.

After reviving, Roger tried his hand at the other three opponents, but he found each to be more brutal than the last.

He even had his own sword smashed out of his hand due to sheer strength while fighting against a Ji-type weapon.

Roger could then only squat on the side of the road empty-handed and question his life choices.

A little slower than him, a large number of other players attempting to be the first to clear the main missions also hit this “wall”.

They all tasted the harsh consequences of their early game reckless skip.

This part of the mission is a comprehensive test for players that requires sufficient physical characteristics (level), skills, and if possible, a good weapon (item).

—In fact, if earlier missions were not skipped and the character’s strength is high enough, these battles would be challenging, but not excessively difficult.

Because this part is not designed to make life difficult for players, but rather to more comprehensively show players different styles and combat methods with different weapons.

After 18 such fights, not only will players broaden their horizons, but they could also choose their favorite weapon, choose appropriate mentors, and learn corresponding combat skills.

ƝονǤ0.с0

So that after completing the main missions, they can use their favorite weapons to freely explore and continuously improve in the game.

This approach can greatly enhance the player’s fun in the game and player retention rate after completing the main missions.

However, for players who want to clear the game quickly, it’s like a living hell, almost impossible to win.

After contemplating his life for a while and seeing no hope, Roger finally chose to log off and rest.

His choice was a wise one.

Many players unwilling to give up after hitting the “wall”, tried to artificially enhance their combat power or beat this part of the mission by resorting to tricks.

But what they do not know is that even if they miraculously win these 18 consecutive battles by sheer luck and incredible skill, if their overall strength fails to meet the standard, they will still not be able to pass the next level, [City Defender].

[City Defender] does not specifically refer to the city defenders of Chang’an, but the city defenders of [Mechanism City].

This part of the mission, although it does not require players to completely clear the Mechanism City, they are required to enter and explore several specific locations, and large-scale battles are inevitable during the process.

And the mechanism puppets in [Mechanism City] are much stronger than the “self-replicating” wooden puppets made with woodworking tools during the [Wooden Puppet Crisis] mission!

So although many people have not yet realized this, players who are trying to clear the game the fastest have already declared their failure in advance.

The ones left with the most hope are those who are neither hurried nor slow, follow their own rhythm, and steadily push the plot forward.

There are a surprising number of these players.

…

Victoria, Shuihua, Lance, along with seven other players and ten NPCs, climbed on their horsebacks, one hand holding the reins, the other gently stroking the horse’s neck, making their final preparations before the race.

The three of them did not skip any missions, and their level, equipment, and skills had all been upgraded many times.

—After cultivating a higher-level [Liquor Gourd], solving the [Wooden Puppet Crisis], obtaining the [Mechanical Bird] left by his sister, and seeking the [Heavenly Divine Stone] to enhance the main weapon to the [Master Level], they also obtained the first batch of [Refined Iron Flying Axes] forged by his sister.

The three of them were standing side by side, preparing for the race while chatting, planning to finish this race, earn the [Horse Whistle], and immediately start the 18 consecutive challenge fights while they were still warmed up.

Engrossed in their conversation, they failed to notice:

Three tracks away, Red Dust was lying on his horse’s back, carefully opening a medicine bag he took from his chest, secretly feeding it to the horse’s mouth under the guise of petting the horse’s head, and the horse licked it clean in a few swipes.

Red Dust then put away the medicine bag and looked at his friend in the audience stands.

His friend nodded assertively, indicating approval.

Upon seeing this, he knew that all his money has been staked on him to win.

As long as he won this race, he would get a windfall!

The victory of this race had already been settled when he fed his horse the medicine!